President Hu's Historic Visit

By

Frederick Kempe

Updated April 18, 2006 5:26 p.m. ET

Chinese President Hu Jintao's first trip to the U.S. this week and his summit Thursday with President Bush are the stuff of history, but you won't discern that from the statements and deals that diplomats dub "the deliverables."

Watch instead what the sum of the parts says about what sort of China is emerging to mark the end of a relatively short period of unrivaled U.S. global dominance from the Cold War's end to, well,...